Old wives’ tales…

I wonder if the old wives whose tales we so often refer to were an actual group of old wives who set down in tablets of stone (or a knitting pattern) their tales which have since been handed down whenever any few people get together and mention the weather, ailments, health, diet, births, marriages, deaths…

There were seven tales of the old wives discussed in today’s newspaper and:

1. An apple a day keeps the doctor away
2. Pregnant women should avoid eating unpasteurised cheeses, shellfish and other “edgy” foods
3. There is a link between the Moon and mad, bad behaviour
4. Drop a penny from the top of a skyscraper and you could kill someone
5. Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight
6. Eating carrots allows you to see in the dark
7. The soul leaves the body on death, which becomes an ounce lighter

According to the article five are false and only two are true… can you guess which are the two true ones?

Well, apparently eating an apple a day is a healthy option; apples contain vitamins and minerals and pectin which is a protein… but lots of other fruit also contain vitamins and minerals and other health enhancers.

If you live in north-west Europe then the red sky at night is an indicator of good weather on its way… but that’s not necessarily true in other parts of the world.

Unpasteurised cheese, shell-fish, paté? What? Are they safe to eat while pregnant? Could I have munched my way through all my favourite foods when I was expecting? Doh!

A major study in 1985 showed absolutely no link whatsoever between the moon and human behaviour… it’s just that when something does happen and it’s a full moon people notice… all the other full moons where zilch happens just sail calmly across the sky.

A coin dropped from the top of a sky-scraper will reach about 40mph… probably enough for an ‘ow’ but not enough for anything more serious… however, other things dropped off tall buildings could do some terminal damage… don’t try this at home!

The carotene in carrots is an important polyunsaturated hydrocarbon, necessary for healthy eyes, but it won’t help you see in the dark… switching on the light will. This actually isn’t an old wives tale, it’s an old WW2 propagandists tale, that RAF pilots ate carrots for good night vision.

If you believe there is such a thing as a soul, then it weighs nothing. There might be minute, teeny-weeny changes in the weight of micro-processor circuits when a computer is closed down, but the same is not true of the weight of a human when he or she closes down. This is another non-wives tale, but comes from a 2003 film.

http://http://youtu.be/ixdv0bWID40